Starting a Consulting Career

I am a engineer with 20 years of experience in production, maintenance, sales, service & product management in petrochemicals. I am thorough with the business processes.I am a SAP SD user for more than 10 years. While working as user I learned configuration working with my colleagues on IDES. I have interacted with my friends who are currently working as consultants & according to them my process knowledge & configuration knowledge is sufficient to start a consulting career. I have principally against faking SAP experience. I have been trying to get a break for last one year. My employer have no vacancy. It seems like other potential employers won't touch me with a barge pole. Please advice.

I just read your posting, Sorry I am not that experienced to answer your post with expert advise.

I think you can go for SAP Certification, It might help you to get in the field.

You can also join some SAP training, many training centre offers course along with the implementation project, so at the end you will have full idea about the scenarios.

And you can make changes into your current resume. I am not asking you to show fake SAP experience, but you can mention about your SAP knowledge & experience in a bit detail along with your domain experience.

And then You can post your resume on jobsites like monster or many other. You also can try to contact IT Recruitment Agencies.

And I there are so many experienced professionals on here, They will surely give you their expert advise soon.

In most of the times the market is in balance. The balance can certainly be tipped one-sidedly from time to time and from case to case but not for a long period. The market demand of capable persons who can deal with and handle the SAP product exists strongly. On the supply side, it can, in some geographic areas of the world, exceed the demand at certain point in time.

You describe that you have sufficiently knowledge and skill that are crucial ingredients for being a consultant. You further deliver the written evidence that other consultants who are currently working on the market testify that you are capable to be a consultant. And you end your description with the undesirable fact that "potential employers won't touch me (you) with a barge pole".

Are you willing to deliver the reason(s) that enable(s) the reader on this forum to follow your personal case logically?

My feeling was a bit too of exasperation. I have learnt the basics of configuration, my business background is solid yet nobody is even bothering to interview me. Some people say it is because of my age (40 ) too high for fresher. Some say team leaders mostly younger than you would find it difficult to handle a person with higher domain knowledge & gelling with team is also a problem. I do not know what it is. Please advice.

I understand that your business background is solid and you know the basics
of configuration. It is the latter factor, I suppose, is the troublesome
one. What your prospective employer would generally expect of you is not
knowledge of basic configuration but experience and expertise in it. I feel
you should try to acquire it. But the catch is "no body gives you the
opportunity ".

If I were you, I would consider landing up in a low profile end user's job,
prove my skills over time, display my knowledge of configuration as and
when required and strive to impress my management by showing my commitment.
But that would mean a lot of patience, dedicated effort, sacrifice ( in
terms of remuneration) and a bit of luck as well. Instead of feeling bad
about my knowledge not being used by others, I would rather try to turn the
pitfall into an opportunity ( though it may not be very comfortable
initially to adapt to in many ways ).

Please be assured, whatever it is, it is not age. I am much older
than you yet have no difficulty working with younger colleagues at
whatever level. Once you are an SAP consultant you are respected for
what you know and can do, not how young or old you are.

Age indeed factors for not getting in through with fresher teams. I was shortlisted, interviewed, got selected but not yet offered. Others interviewed with me have got into their jobs already. Reason 'I am too senior for junior position and too junior for senior position'. But yes, I'm assured that I will be taken in, when I do not know. I just have to wait. And speaking of senior I have 8 years ERP (nonSAP) experience. Yet... guys I am waiting....

As Roy pointed out , he is older than us but the most respected
professional for his knowledge and expertise. In fact, I started learning
SAP at an age of 52 and am 55 now. Age is not a deterring factor for a
skilled consultant. As was pointed out earlier, learn more, study more, try
to obtain yourself a certification, learn SAP skills ( since you already
know business skills , SAP learning is easy for you ). Do not give up.
Quitters don't Win and Winners don't quit.

Age is not a bar in entering the Consulting field. The problem is not with you, it lies with the people or environment around you.

I have come across cases of excellent people who have been told (in India, at least) that "they are too old" (anyone above40). It is the recruitment agency that conveys this message to the candidate. It not the employer and it was invariably done verbally. No hope of suing them, even if the policies say all the right things (the practice is different).

This is true only for those who are "freshers" as far as SAP is concerned. Once you have done a couple of implementations, there's no stopping you. Its getting the initial break.

I know of a few who have gone on to do something else after successful SAP certification, since they could not get a break because they were "too old". I also tried but could not help them, as this was what was the mindset of the potential (some MNC) employers.

Based on the fact of your reply letter: It seems that you are not able to provide the potential employers with necessary evidence that you are a capable person for the position that you desire because, among other things, "I (you) have learnt the basics of configuration". And this alone is certainly not enough in any way to fulfill the requirement of the job of an acceptable consultant.

In most of the cases the rejection from the employer or hiring company is crucially argued and reasonably found in the limited scope of ability of the job applicants. Potential employers then move down to a lower level of argument (to not hurt the feeling of the applicant and to potentially avoid legal consequence in giving a reason for rejection that is contrary to the legal basis of a litigious society) by searching for a banal answer. And in most cases they arrive at the natural age of the applicant.

In your second letter, the basis of your offer is much weaker compared to the first one. Short: You do not have much of valuable things to satisfy the expectation of a potential employer. Another point of concern is that you plan your professional future and career on a shaky ground. Why? Because you throw away your 20 (twenty) years of experience as Engineer and put yourself into the long waiting line with a weak, vague hope to get a job in SAP as (almost) a beginner. If one of my paying clients with similar background and plan like yours pays for advice, I will end the consulting in a few minutes with the result to recommend him to do what he does best since twenty years. Do not subjectively ignore the fact that SAP is only a tool to reach the goal. And because SAP is only a tool; there must be a large number of other tools for you to reach your goal. Be wise to yourself. A good plan must first be suitable; and it must be firstly suitable to you; otherwise it is senseless and a waste of resources and personal talent.

(Can you imagine that a SAP woman or man with 20 (twenty) years of experience one day stands up and "dreams" an impossible dream to throw everything away and stand patiently (with a weak and vague hope) to get a job as Engineer on one of the lowest levels?).

Really yours right nowadays getting job is become a fashion not for hard
working, in my experience I would like to tell you don't afraid try until
your goal is reached especially IT interviewers not having much knowledge
about perfect selection criteria, they are preferring only for fake guys to
work surrounds because they also came with same platform.

I want to know why they required experience guys without knowledge, why
can't they go with freshers no age bar with SAP knowledge.
Anyhow try sir you will get job in this field.

I would say take advantage of age, maturity and skills you acquired throughout your life. I have started very late in my life. I have something what others don't is my experience. Follow the advise of Vidhya Dhar and Roy. These are the very knowledgeable people and have excelled in the field. Look at them as your mentors and forget as to what you are going through with younger colleagues. Follow the leaders, one day you will be leader.

I differ with lots of you here, age is a factor and is considered as a factor.

I give my own example, I received a call from WIPRO asking my date of birth, to which I replied, it is illegal to ask for DOB in USA. He told me that I can not enter into portal until I enter the field. Hesitantly, I provided the date of birth, It was so funny to receive a email that my technical review was at Senior level.
Next day I received a call from WIPRO mentioning that the manager is looking for young college graduate so they can teach them. I wrote to WIPRO and have not received any reply from them.
As a US citizen I have right to go to Equal opportunity office and file a complain, which I did and went to the State Attorney's office with a complained. I am approaching my congress women and my senators to stop or change WIPRO's business practice in USA.
For those of you, who preach the age is not a factor, it is when you are dealing with companies which operate from India.

Hi
Since you have said that you are already working in a company that runs SAP as an end user. Talk your manager into allowing you to work with your company's SAP team like say 5 hours a week. This will take a lot of effort though, like convincing your manager and the manager of the team that you will job shadow in. Once you are there it is up to you to impress them. You can give them a hand in small tickets/incidents and this will eventually make them think that you might be a good resource. In some cases if they are impressed, and if budget allows they can even create a position. Particularly when you already are an end user my advice would be to look with in your organization. Network with IT and get to know them. Also on top of this - you have only been trying for the last 1 year to break into SAP - which is usually normal. It takes anywhere between two to three years to land in something if you are among a good network of professionals. Don't loose heart and at the same time get access to IDES and keep learning. Nothing equals your skill. Make a list of what you have learned in the last one year. Usually in one years time without being in a full time job you have not even learned 5 % of the configuration side of any module. Perseverance will pay off!!!

Interesting post, Arvind, and thank you for your kind words. I also had some experiences with Wipro. They wanted to recruit some experienced contractors for projects in Germany so I sent in my CV. They then wanted to do an interview but they somehow could not get their act together to phone me at the times arranged (arranged by them to suit them, not by me). They also wrote me emails starting off "Dear Brookes" which is not an acceptable salutation to an Englishman and certainly not for a senior consultant like me. After several weeks of this sort of messing about I emailed the company and said please return my CV and cancel my candidature - I am not interested. They then became huffy and eventually a member of senior management asked me to provide details of exactly what had transpired, which I supplied. I have heard no more from them but, in any case, I would not reply to any further contacts because they are now on my black list (yes, I do have a black list of companies I will not work for). I have a preference for professional outfits and they are not one of them, in my humble opinion.

Dear Mr. Vidyadhar,
I understand & fully agree with your advice. The problem is how do I acquire higher level of knowledge unless I handle practical problems. People learn by attacking a problem using the resources they already have (knowledge, acumen etc). If they cannot get it solved they resort to studying to acquire newer knowledge or invent their own. Nobody seems to be giving me that opportunity.

SAP as I understand is about business processes. If one does not know how a business process works how can configuration of the process be done in SAP. When I talk to people I know working is SAP they rue the lack of domain knowledge in many of their colleagues who have been working for many years. As a result, the quality of job done is also poor. Still employers put up with them just because their "billing rate" is low.

There are endusers and there are endusers!
The endusers who exemplify high interest to learn, understanding of various business processes & their steps in SAP, experience of working across wide range of topics in a particular module, problem solving ability, involved in training, etc. are the ones who have better chances of succeeding in becoming consultants.

A search of the archives tells me that you have been broaching this subject from Nov 2010 ( 25th Nov 2010, to be precise). In other words, you have been aspiring for something ever since you were 38 years old ( presume you are 40 now). You have a lot of domain experience and good academic qualifications as I can infer from your posts

Many people advised you two years ago to go in for a certification. I am not sure if you did think anything in concrete terms about this. In fact, I remember Roy telling you that initial sacrifices have to be made for aspiring to climb up the career ladder. I get the impression that you were not willing to decide on this either ( perhaps you had your own reasons ......may be even justified reasons for not starting for a lesser pay than the CTC of 13 lacs you were earning then). You have let time flow by and you are still querying on the same subject.

There are two approaches to life be contented with what you have this would mean that you would prefer a risk-free life but you may have to compromise on bettering your future ; the other approach would be to take an acceptable risk and execute some kind of action or the other. Of course, this would mean that you have to get out of a comfort zone and face reality.

I get the impression that you have been commenting on factors such as
lack of opportunity,
ageing,
people getting opportunity in configuration without domain knowledge etc.

Please forgive me my saying so ...... Instead of harping on the negative points of the life, what positive factors have you considered during the two years that have lapsed, if I may ask? What additional skills have you managed to add during these two years ? A positive approach , some risk taking , and a constant quest for adding to your skill sets would do you better, I suppose than fritter two precious years by taking shelter under the negative factors around you.

I am not trying to discourage you. Please do not take me amiss. You may have your justifiable reasons for staying in the same rung of career ladder for the past two years.

But, a positivist takes life in good stride. Turns threats into opportunities. At least attempts to do so. Please ruminate and find out if you have done something of that kind? Please introspect yourself and then decide for yourself. As I said before, there are people who are contented and stay happy the way they are. There are others who take life as a challenge and work upstream even in dire straits.

After all it is your life. Winners never quit and Quitters never win.

Please do not take me amiss for sounding crude. I thought I should be honest with you.

Thanks to all of you for your time and valuable advice regarding my query.
I am especially thankful to Mr. Vidyadhar, Mr. Brookes, Typewriter & Viet_tran for their candid observations on the matter. I think now I know what it takes to become a SAP consultant.
I will be making a plan shortly and working on it towards my goal. I am still looking forward to a possible break into the consulting domain.
Thank you once again.